Power Season 2 Premiere Recap: Ghost, Gobsmacked

Maybe not yet, but that’s the situation that’s brewing as Starz’s Power kicks off its second season. James “Ghost” St. Patrick’s nightclub is kaput (at least for now), his drug business is having a serious staffing problem and he’s about to find out that his sidepiece is a Fed. Oh yeah and, unbeknownst to Ghost, his former mentor wants him dead.

SHOTS FIRED!| Literally no time has passed since the Season 1 finale; we pick up as world’s worst assassin Pink Sneakers is running away from Truth and the cops are wondering why Ghost wasn’t more freaked out by the fact that someone standing next to him — Tommy’s girlfriend, Holly — was gunned down. Maybe the hit was meant for him? they ask. But Ghost goes all resting stoneface and says he doesn’t know anything about anyone having a beef with him. He calls Angie, they exchange “I love yous” and agree: Their romantic getaway to Miami isn’t happening anytime soon.

ANGELA FINDS ANOTHER WAY| What Ghost doesn’t know: Nomar’s death is having fast-moving “consequences” — as Angela’s boss hisses in her ear just before an important meeting — on Angie’s career. In a nutshell: Her boss gets booted to Michigan, and Mike Sandoval (played by One Life to Live alum David Fumero), the new guy brought in to oversee the Lobos task force, wants Angela very far away from the investigation. He even makes Cooper the new lead, “So now I have to report to a total a—hole who used to report to me,” she grouses.

When she tries to regain ground by suggesting that she pursue some of the numbers in Nomar’s phone, he replies that it’s in evidence lock-up and he won’t OK a request to remove it. Angie’s all, “Evidence. Riiiiight,” knowing the whole time that she grabbed the cell the night of the murder and now has it in her desk drawer.

So after donning a tight ponytail and big hoop earrings for a drive-by of Nomar’s funeral, she decides that Isabel — the teen to whom Nomar lovingly sent pictures of his junk — will be her new path to ID’ing Ghost’s white, partially identified distributor. Angie texts the girl, who meets her at a church and seems wary but takes Angie’s contact info nonetheless. Given the great choices Angela has made for as long as we’ve known her, what could go wrong?

TOMMY IS TRAUMATIZED| Where’s Tommy, you might wonder? Armed with the info that Angie is a federal prosecutor (and worried that Ghost is setting him up to take a giant fall), he hightails it back to his mother’s house to hide out. She knocks him out with a baseball bat, they do coke together, it’s a good time. Eventually, though, Ghost tracks his best friend down and demands to know what’s up with the disappearing act: They’ve got a buttload of cocaine to move, and he needs all hands on deck. (Side note: I admire how calm Ghost stays during the conversation, given that his coked-up, not-super-balanced-under-the-best-circumstances friend is holding a gun on him the whole time.)

Ultimately, Tommy reveals that Angie is the enemy. “She told me she was a lawyer for the government,” Ghost says, dazed. Yes, honey, THAT IS WHAT A FEDERAL PROSECUTOR IS. Given your line of work, didn’t any of those words raise even the tiniest of red flags? Though he’s completely thrown, Ghost pulls it together and brings Tommy to the hospital, where Holly is alive but unconscious after the shooting. Aw, guys, Tommy is broken. Even later, when the giant coke shipment rolls into Ghost’s staging area, Tommy is still clinging to his annoying girlfriend and doesn’t look like he’s planning to move anytime soon.

SITTING ON IT| At the end of the episode, Ghost goes to Angela’s apartment and gives her continual stinkeye, but she seems not to notice, and he says nothing about the new information he’s acquired. Has she been gaming him since Day 1? He has no idea, but he chooses to play it normal — for now. Meanwhile, Tasha is back at home, reveling in her increased role in the drug side of the biz and feeling pretty good that Ghost said he was kicking his mistress to the curb… yeah, the same mistress he finishes out the episode with. #WakeupTasha.

Also of importance: Simon Stern wants to buy the shut-down Truth from Ghost (again), but when he won’t sell, Simon reveals that he’s actually bought the building and is now Ghost’s landlord. “Come work for me, James, and I’ll make you the man you’ve always wanted to be,” Simon purrs. Or, as he makes clear, he’s push Ghost out and open Truth under another name. Ghost grudgingly tells the older man he’ll consider the offer.

DADDY’S HOME| Elsewhere, Kanan spends his first few days out of jail putting the fear of God into his Pink Sneakers liaison — who promises to find her for him — and actively plotting against Ghost. As part of that, he gifts son Shawn with a gun, y’know, just in case.

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